


and beyond

by egare



Category: BeamNG.drive (Video Game), Car Boys (Web Series), The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Car Boys Crossover, Gen, Spoilers for Car Boys Finale and The Adventure Zone's Stolen Century Arc, Temporary Character Death, heckin up with tenses ON PURPOSE
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-26
Updated: 2017-06-26
Packaged: 2018-11-19 06:07:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11307297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/egare/pseuds/egare
Summary: It is May, and they come across another ship.But this ship does not seem to be moving on its own. It is small, and blue, and floating. From a distance, Davenport thinks it is simply an asteroid that he has to avoid. It is Magnus' fascination that makes him slow the ship, listening as the man shouts about how it looks like "there are people in between worlds, just like us! We have to check them out!"





	and beyond

**The single year they spend in each world is not always a year.**

Sometimes, it is fourteen months. Other times, nine. They do not always land on the dot, entering a world January and ending in December. But even the smallest of changes has effects, as IPRE gets their bearings after having returned from the newest stop. It is the start of their ninety sixth 'year.'

It has been a tough few years, the ninety third to fifth one. It has taken so long to find the Light of Creation in the world they enter- Foon, was that the name? The years blurred- and to bring it back on the ship before everything inevitably restarts and they are sent on another chase. They lose Lup, Taako, and Barry in the last world, but they return the moment the ship took off. They always return.

The world after that is peaceful, but tensely so. They all wait for the moment they have to take off, the Light of Creation having been in their hands for months already. Yet the Hunger does not come. The world, lush and green yet also fake and woolly, does not face the wrath of black mass, is not consumed for the scheme of a plane dissatisfied with life.

It is thirteen months in to this world, scarcely inhabited and running out of distractions for IPRE on the half of the planet they had taken to, that Merle suggests Parlaying with the Hunger- John, as he has taken to calling him.

He is in a room with a long table in the real world, his teammates in the chairs on the sides and watching as he begins. The world fluctuates around him, and Merle opens his eyes to a sunset and an empty conference room.

He is shirtless, and he is alone.

It takes a few moments until John arrives, and that should be suspicious enough to make Merle wary. It never took time to find the man before, what has changed? Yet John is not the same, he is not the suave man with the salt-and-pepper hair, the suited being with grace that Merle could never achieve. His eyes are dull, as he looks out the window that ended up in front of him as he appears in the room. They widen in surprise, and there is almost a flicker of emotion, but they are back to black as he turns to his conversation partner.

"Merle." He greets, and the dwarf is unsure how to feel.

"How's it going, John?" There is a change in his posture, very brief, and gone as soon as Merle notices it, but it was there at the sound of his voice. A slackening of the shoulders, a curling inward of the spine. It was there, but is gone now, only remembered by the dwarf.

"Is that your question?" He wonders aloud and seems almost amused with the whole thing, something making his emotionless face difficult to keep still, something forcing his mouth to move when he did not want it to.

"It's a question, but not The question. Can't a guy wonder how his pal is doing?" A pause, before he adds, "That wasn't The question, neither."

John doesn't reply, and Merle watches as the man paces, not content with sitting in his usual chair. The chess board has yet to appear, as well.

"What's going on, buddy?"

A finely shaped eyebrow raises, and Merle lets out an exasperated sigh before nodding, "Yes, that's The question."

He turns completely to the dwarf, taking his seat at the table. For a moment he breaks, shoulders sagging in tiredness rather than comfort. It was not a movement that someone who had known him for less than twenty years would have noticed. But he is back to his original state, immaculate, and guarded, as he answers the question.

John's answer is always longer than necessary, and it takes time for Merle to hear the answer to his actual question.

"Woolly's World. That was the name of the last plane I was on. Then it was another, but I... we did not choose to enter it." He seems almost pained to admit his lack of control, as he does not meet Merle's eyes. "What is worse, Merle- to be alive for eternity, surviving, but not living, or to be dead, but unable to truly grasp the concept of just how endless your time is? Unable to fear eternity because you do not entirely feel its presence. Because you have yet to realize just what you are in, and will never realize, because you are in a peaceful death that limits your capability of understanding your surroundings."

"It seems like there is a story behind that, John," his voice is sing-song, making the Hunger chuckle and shake his head.

"There were two boys in Woolly's World. Humans. I assume now that they were with you." He pauses, and almost angrily adds, "Did you lie years ago, when I asked about your team? Why did you fail to mention those two?"

"Who are you talking about?" It is Merle's turn to be confused, watching what appears more as frustration than anger take over. "Magnus and Barry- I told you about them, they're my friends."

"These were not the men you described!"

And things click into place for both of them. John realizes that he is showing emotion, and shuts it quickly, knowing that although he is only mimicking the reaction he would have had years ago, it is not real. He is pretending to feel something for a show, a show he knows Merle does not need. Merle is able to see through it, for whom the Hunger really is. But his body does not seem to agree, faking the emotions that he was unable to feel in an attempt to seem more... friendly.

More... Human.

The realization makes him scowl, and he cuts the conversation short, reaching out his hand-

Merle is prepared for death, but it does not come for him. They stay there for a moment, hand outstretched for one of them and eyes shut closed for the other, continuing the traditional end of their meetings.

But the story has changed.

Merle cracks one eye open, looking at John as he looks down at his own hand. It remains the same, skin, not a black tar that he was willing it to turn into.

Things click in place, but they also click out. ~~~~ ~~~~

 

* * *

 

**It is May, and they come across another ship.**

But this ship does not seem to be moving on its own. It is small, and blue, and floating. From a distance, Davenport thinks it is simply an asteroid that he has to avoid. It is Magnus' fascination that makes him slow the ship, listening as the man shouts about how it looks like "there are people in between worlds, just like us! We have to check them out!" Davenport says nothing as he adjusts his speed and angle, listening to Magnus as he makes his way to the cockpit and explain what the Captain has just overheard.

How Magnus finds these sorts of things, he would never know.

They try to pull up to the small ship, and upon further inspection it is decided that the ship was not a ship but a car- they had seen such things in a few of the worlds already- that was fluctuating in states of destruction. Lucretia was the one to suggest instability where the car was located, watching as the glass cracks and the body of the vehicle crushes in on itself before pulling back out to the original form.  
  
Two beams were coming out of the middle of the car, and even though they extended in both directions, it felt like they were almost... drifting away from one another. Lost from their other half, just like the car has become lost to whatever world it is from. Barry and Lucretia make eye contact, but the journal keeper turns away and returns to her books, not able to comment.

"It's a bit suspicious that this turns up after what happened to Merle, isn't it?" Davenport suggests, nearly unheard by the woman standing next to him. Yet she looks down at the captain, before once again looking back at the car. They have all been pointing out suspicious things for the past... however long they have been in the ship without landing. "Wow, look at this, Lup, the step stool is in the bathroom! Pretty suspicious, isn't it?" and "Huh, the plants are seeming pretty good, all things considered."

Lucretia seems to be the only one not trying to make excuses. Merle was unable to return from wherever he went when he used Parlay, and that would not change until they landed somewhere and got help. But if they land before he recovers, it might be irreversible. Her thoughts direct her away from the window, and she heads to the medical bay, knowing what she was going to come across.

Although he has not woken from his state, Merle seems almost... peaceful. He is relaxed and calm in his sleep, the rise and fall of his chest consistent with a slow pace. There are no thrashes or cries, and he is not turning to black in front of their eyes before disintegrating, so Lucretia considers whatever state he is in to be a partial success.

She sits by him for a while, speaking out loud as she writes in only one journal- although she is able to write in two, she can only speak one, and figures Merle would not like the jumble of her attempting to read both as she writes them. No, she talks of the car the team found, of how "they keep connecting things back to you, Merle", of how they are all still waiting for him to wake back up.

He just has to wake up. ****

 

* * *

**A distance away, two men are trapped in eternity.**

Griffin does not fail to mention whenever Ball passes the front of their car, to which Nick points out that the thing has passed and will pass and is passing all the time. They were, after all, in eternity. Time was different.

It was a bit of a damper on the mood.

They had taken to creating metaphorical situations and answering them, before switching to something both of them enjoyed- video games. Yet after they planned an ingenuous first game, the fact that this whole situation started because of a game came up, and the mood was once again dampened.

Griffin is napping when Nick points it out. He slaps his friend's arm a few times, wincing at the cry out as he is sent flying out of the car from the strength, but also is not moving, but also will fly and will not- Griffin looks over, following where Nick's finger was- is- pointing.

A ship.

"It almost looks like a cruise ship."

One of them points out first, and the other points out first, then they both exclaim it at the same time, and neither deigned to mention its sighting to the other.

Nick tries the gas, trying to see if he could get the car to move closer to the ship, but he is unable to.

Yet in no time at all, and in what felt like a hundred years, and in what will be one entire year, something is built on the side of the ship. Something that looked a bit like a claw machine's claw, and will end up being able to work, and is fully operational as it moves over. It swings, and the ship moves back as if in fear.

Many things happen at once, have happened in unison, and will happen at the same time. The timing of it does not matter, so much as the fact that the things that happen are not happening for no reason. No, it is imperative that IPRE and the Car Boys and the Hunger realizes, will realize, have realized that this is no matter of coincidence.

The claw grasps the sides of the car, and tugs.

Griffin and Nick are cheering, surprised that something was able to break through eternity. Their cheering stops, however, when Ball passes on their left one more time. Something else, someone else, passes with him.

Lucretia cries out in surprise as Merle begins to turn to tar, before he dissipates into the air. Magnus, never one to let himself be off guard, almost smashes a hammer into a newly resurrected Merle's face on the deck of the ship.

A black mass consumes a soccer ball.

Inside the mass, a man smiles.


End file.
